According to string theory, we live in a ten-dimensional universe, but that only four are accessible to our everyday senses; the missing six are curled up in bizarre structures known as Calabi-Yau manifolds. Shing-Tung Yau, the man who mathematically proved that these manifolds exist, argues here that not only is geometry fundamental to string theory, it is also fundamental to the essential nature of our universe. Here he offers his perceptions on where we've been in physics, and predicts where mathematics will take us next, exploring a universe we are only just beginning to grasp on both its grandest and smallest scales.

"It is a testimony to [Yau's] careful prose (and no doubt to the skills of co-author Steve Nadis) that this book so compellingly captures the essence of what pushes string theorists forward in the face of formidable obstacles. It gives us a rare glimpse into a world as alien as the moons of Jupiter, and just as fascinating.... Yau and Nadis have produced a strangely mesmerizing account of geometry's role in the universe."—New Scientist